TEACHERS at Neston High School voted overwhelmingly to block proposals for the school to become an Academy.
Governors at Neston High School will meet on Friday to decide whether to apply for academy status.
But on October 16, officials from the three teaching unions, NUT, NASUWT and ATL, and Unison, representing support staff, met with their members at the school.
Those present voted on whether or not they supported the proposal that Neston High change its status.
Forty three opposed the proposal, four abstained – no-one was in favour of seeing the school become an academy.
This meeting was followed by a parents’ consultation evening where anti-academy campaigners were allowed to give out their literature inside the school and were given coffee and biscuits.
Campaigners argue academies take away democratic accountability – they are funded by the state but not under the authority of the local council, while school assets, land and buildings are leased to the academy for 125 years.
There are only two elected parent governors – all others are appointed.
In an open letter to other parents, Felicity Dowling and Jim Hollinshead said: “There is no automatic space for staff, community or local authority representatives – effectively democratic accountability is out!”
They accuse the Government of wanting all schools to become academies or free schools and being open about bringing privatisation to education.
Greg Foster, organiser of the Cheshire West Anti-Academies Campaign, said: “Parents do not want to send their children to academies for many reasons – just one being that they boost their results by excluding up to five times as many students as state schools and there is no way parents can appeal.”
